Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, maybe Luxembourg 10ish day itinerary help!
 

Hello! I am planning a trip with my twin boys. They will be turning 18 next year and they were born in Ashaffenburg Germany. We are looking to do about 10 days could push to 12, and we just found a festival in Belgium that we want to attend on the front end or the back end. Looking to use the rail system as much as possible.

We want to do lots of beer and wine tasting because their age 😁 they also want to see castles and either BMW or Porsche museum.

I’m looking for all the help! Best itinerary, must do, see and EAT!

we don’t mind being on the go and in a new hotel or hostile as often as possible but do want to minimize actual travel time.

would love any help and recommendations!

The Porsche Museum is in Stuttgart so not so far from Ashaffenberg. BMW in Munich so quite a it further.
Which festival in Belgium? Tickets sell out fast for biggies like Werchter.
I would drop the Netherlands (and probably Luxembourg) from you list given the time you have and the things you want to see.
Look at the DB site for trains, look at the German, Luxembourg and Belgian tourist board sites for ideas. Find a map, plot what you want to see, work out if you can do it all by train and the best routing.
Encourage your twins to contribute ideas, and enjoy planning things together.

Welcome to Fodors. We deleted the Trip Report tag.

" . . . but do want to minimize actual travel time."

Four countries in 10 (or even 12) days is really REALLY aggressive so no way you could minimize travel time. Using the max 12 days - that leaves 9.5 days free for seeing/doing. Then you eat up another minimum half a day moving from one place to another -- so now you are down to 8-ish days. With a car museum, Ashaffenburg/Frankfurt and beer festival as musts -- Germany + Belgium would be about the most I'd attempt.

Do you have any dates as wine festivals and beer festivals are date driven?

I am not a big fan of Stuttgart itself (not an attractive city) but with the car industry / museums there and the fact that it is in the centre of a wine region, it makes a lot of sense to use it as a base, and perhaps get out and see a bit of the Black Forest (Gengenbach, Triberg).

If you get to Belgium, are you likely to want to visit a brewery? If so, Cantillon is in the Brussels suburbs. Otherwise, 18 year olds are probably going to be impressed with Delirium, which is in the streets of the Brussels Centre-Ville and has 1000-plus beers. There are other beer pubs but I think that one would be good for young people without a lot of beer expertise.

Give me some ideas about restaurants - are you interested in traditional Belgian food? Is there stuff you wouldn't eat?

Lavandula

I can’t speak to an itinerary per se but highly recommend Munich – it was one of my favourite places to stay in Germany (alongside Hamburg) and it would tick a lot off your lists; it has the BMW Museum, multiple castles within the city (and the gorgeous Neuschwanstein is an easy day trip) and the bier gardens are great, giant pretzels and beer is only sold by the litre after 5pm.

I wasn’t overly impressed with Cologne but if you happen to find yourself there, Maastricht in the Netherlands is also an easy day trip and a gorgeous city to visit full of charm.